It’s almost impossible to believe that camp is over halfway over. We are praising God for all that He has done in the first five days of camp, as we have set aside time to spend time studying the Scriptures! Thank you so much for praying with us, and we ask that you continue going before the Lord boldly to ask that His will is accomplished in the ways only He can!

There has been such a sweetness in all that has gone wrong too. That sounds a little bit alarming, but it’s really not; because God has basically been making our staff into a giant illustration of Ephesians. So many of the staff are being placed in positions to depend on God and their camp family to support them, whether that’s from a physical injury or the Lord placing people into positions that expose inadequacy.

We’re also grateful for the things that cause us to realize freshly that it is God who is in control. Last night, during the main session there was a short gusty storm that passed through and knocked over a Bradbury pear tree on the Precept property (But again don’t worry. Everyone is safe.) It’s just that yesterday one of the concepts from Ephesians 3 that we studied is how Christ is the head of the body of Christ.

Another way this theme is displayed at camp is through the sports times. There are teams for the sake of having a competition and goal to rally around. However, we’ve implemented something called “covenant teams” which is where a younger team (e.g. 15 year olds) are covenanted to an older team (e.g. 18 year olds). At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what any team’s score is individually; the only thing that counts is the combined score of the four covenant teams both for the sports time competition, and for the upcoming camp activity. The teams are individually evaluated not just for whether they win their sport of the day; they have to earn character points by encouraging with genuine attitudes. And throughout camp, each day has had a different theme for which team they play:

— Day 2 / WARM UP – two teams that are closer in age (e.g. 15 vs. 16 year olds) — Day 3 / ON FIRE – two teams that are far away in age (e.g. 15 vs. 18 year olds) — Day 4 / THE BLENDER – when the teams got onto the field, they had combine into one team yet two groups (e.g. both teams = 50% 15 year olds, 50% 18 year olds) — Day 5 / WILD CARD – a three-bucket-drawing where the two teams and the sport are chosen at random — Day 6 / DAY OF REDEMPTION – teams go up against a team they have played earlier in the week, to have the chance of winning this time around

At lunch in the middle of Day 5, some staff came into the dining room with the buckets for the WILD CARD drawing so campers knew who they were up against and what they would be playing during sports time. Let us tell you: there was clapping and cheering and bit of booing!

But the sweetest part for us is that we haven’t explained covenant teams fully to the campers yet. They won’t really get the chance to process the connections of these covenant teams to Ephesians until the camp activity on Day 7. We are excited for them to experience and reflect on what it means to be a part of the body in a unique way.

Please be praying for our teachers and the campers today. We’re studying Ephesians 4, where Paul switches from the doctrines of chapters 1-3 and explicates what it looks like lived out. But there are a lot of instructions; so please pray that the Lord would show us that we have not “grown out” of the riches of God’s grace. Rather, that each of these instructions come from the surpassing power of God through faith; and that the old self is put off so the new person can be put on by faith in Christ alone.